Will America Survive “The Democracy Countdown”?

Guest Blogger Bio: Jeff Christian is a businessman and listener and reader of The Christian Worldview. He submitted the following article entitled “The Democracy Countdown.”

This is the most interesting thing I’ve read in a long time. The sad thing about it is that you can see it coming. I have always heard about this democracy countdown. It is interesting to see it in print. God help us, not that we deserve His help!

“About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result being that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations, from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage”

Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

Number of States won by: Democrats: 19; Republicans: 29
Square miles of land won by: Democrats: 580,000; Republicans: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Democrats: 127 million; Republicans: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Democrats: 13.2; Republicans: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory Republicans won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare…”

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the ‘complacency and apathy’ phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached the ‘governmental dependency’ phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

I graduated from a secular college with a BA in Philosophy in 1964. I entered college as a Christian and, by the grace of God, left it still a Christian. One of my papers was about the treatise of Plato called “Plato’s Laws”. When I read “Plato’s Laws”, I was amazed that Democracy, according to Plato, was not the “best” form of government. I had been brought up and “trained” that a Democracy was the best form of government.

According to Plato, a “Monarchy” is the best form of government. The hitch is you must have a “benevolent or good monarch”. Since that is not possible humanly speaking, (“Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”) the next best form of government after a “Good Monarchy” is a “Plutocracy” but, once again, you need the collection of “elites” to have the people’s best interest at heart and not their own best interest.

Next, and last of the “best governments” is Democracy which Plato defined as the rule of the majority or rule of the people. Plato felt that a democracy was the least efficient form of government but on the “plus” side, because it is so inefficient, it would do the least damage in the long run. He pointed out some of the drawbacks as listed above in this email. He also pointed out that Monarchies always become Tyrannies and Plutocracies always become Oligarchies over time.

Discussing the worst forms of government, Plato said that a democracy was the “best” of the worst. Tyranny or a “Dictatorship” is the worst government; Oligarchy is in between democracy and tyranny. Interestingly, the difference between the best form of government (Monarchy) and the worst form of government (Tyranny) (both being the rule of one man/woman) is the character and nature of the ruler. Good Monarch (benevolent) vs. Bad Tyrant (Malevolent).

Initially, Israel was a theocracy with God as the Monarch. They wanted a “King” like the other nations and God gave them their desire. They traded the best for the worst. When Jesus Christ returns and rules the world from Jerusalem for one thousand years, we will once again have the only Good Monarch, Jesus Christ, The Prince of Peace, ruling the world. It will be a demonstration of God’s wisdom versus Man’s rebellion.

You can see that Democracy falls “in the middle” and is therefore the least dangerous to the most people. Plato argued for Democracy even with its faults.

I believe our founding fathers were aware of the democratic pitfalls. Consequently, they founded a democratic “Republic” and built in the three forms of government: Executive, Legislative, Judicial. These “checks and balances” have worked reasonably well for 200 years because the members of each of the branches, even if they weren’t Christians themselves (most were I think), followed “the will of the people” who were mostly Christian. To not rule by Biblical standards would have been political suicide. Democracy works only if it has a Biblical foundation. “If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?” There is no morality apart from the Judeo-Christian God. The “Ten Commandments” may be “old” but they are still the “only” basis for law and morality even if you believe there is no God. “The fool has said in his heart there is no God.” “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Thanks to our liberal and secular educational system, we now live in a “post-modern”, pluralistic, “post-Christian”, culture and society.

Pluralistic: Truth doesn’t matter. Any belief is as good as any other (violates the laws of logic specifically, the law of non-contradiction). Men and Women are all equal and so are their beliefs and cultures (political correctness).

Post-Christian: “Having the form of religion, but denying the power thereof”.

Albert Einstein, toward the end of his life, complained that “Relativity applies only to Physics.” Unfortunately, in conjunction with Darwinism, relativism has been applied to everything. Today, God is dead and Truth (“reality”) is not important or doesn’t exist. How you “feel” about it is what matters. The nation just elected our next president based on “their feelings” and totally ignored the “facts”. And it will grow worse until we are “taken out of here” and the “anti-Christ” is revealed.

Something else I have observed: God always “allows” Satan to tempt us with his best shot. Then, after Satan (and usually the one being tempted) has fallen on his face, he reveals Himself and gives us His best. In case you wonder sometimes why God doesn’t just take Satan “out” when He is fully capable of doing so, I think it is because God knows that it would only be a matter of time before some other “angel” would try the same rebellion and it would go on forever.

I can use Osama Bin Laden as an example. If and when we kill or capture Bin Laden, it will make no difference. Another man, just as evil, will step in to take his place. God has chosen to allow Satan to do his best as a demonstration that Satan can’t succeed. In the end, no one will ever again challenge God’s wisdom, power and glory. If God were to instantly make everything perfect, He would be considered a “Bully”. God and Satan are not “equals”. One is the Creator and the other a creature. The “power” of God is infinitely greater than the power of Satan. To arbitrarily use His power would be “unfair” of God.

One effect, were God to eliminate the “evil one” would be to eliminate “Love” since we would all be “robots” and have no choice. Love ceases to be love when it is forced. Love is only love when freely given. Even God can’t force someone to love Him. Yes, there are things that even God cannot do. “He can’t deny Himself” and He can’t lie. Romans tell us that “the goodness of God leads us to repentance”. The Holy Spirit “draws us to God”, but never demands that we respond. By contrast, my computer does what I tell it to do. It has no “will” of its own.

The Bible tells us that Satan “will be bound for a thousand years” while Jesus Christ rules the earth. It goes on to say that Satan is released at the end of the millennial reign? It is as if God is saying, “Okay, you have seen and experienced God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom. Once again, it is your choice. Unbelievably, the heart of man is so “incurably sick” that there will still be some (men and angels) that will choose Satan. God will have no choice but to cast them all into the “lake of fire”.

All history has been the choice between life and death: God-the “Good Monarch” or Satan the “Evil Tyrant”.